You should a buttonhole button that must be pushed on the machineeither before you pull the buttonhole lever down or after to let the sewing machine know what function to use, my sewing machinewon't let me make a buttonhole unless I push the buttonhole buttonor yes, like you said the buttonhole foot could be damaged.

6 Suggested Answers

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generally most sewing problems are due to sticking parts because of non usage as =you have stated or because the tension has been not set right. what I suggest is that you take the time to do some cleaning of the machine like what bis pointed out in your manual use a light weight mineral oil to wipe the moving parts with, but not too much. also adjust the tension of the foot so there is pressure on the material as to move it while sewing. after all the cleaning and adjusting rethread the bobbin and make sure it is seated properly also rethread the need and make sure the thread moves freely from the spool. this should do the trick. please rate this

If you remove the cover on the upper left portion of the machine, while looking from the left to the right.....Above the BH lever area, you will see a round cam with a post through the middle. Rotate the round can ( with fingers on it), and try again. This will change the angle position on the lever, and hopefully correct your problem. You may have to go a couple of clicks in either direction.

I have a problem with my CS 8150 which sometimes tells me to lower the pressure foot even though I had already did it. What clears the problem for me is that I eject the thread cassette and re-install and I can go ahead and sew. Try that to see if it will quit telling you to pull down the lever.

Ideally you want a foot that looks like this with a very small hole where the needle goes down, to maximise the pressure onto the fabric. Just don't move the stitch setting to anything that swings the needle or you'll smash the needle onto the foot and risk damaging the machine.

But unless you are having issues with the fabric being pulled down into the feed dogs, the regular clear sewing foot should be fine for most work and is certainly easier to see what you are sewing.

A lot of quilters go for a 1/4" foot too which gives you consistent 1/4" seam widths when piecing quilts. There is a excellent website on sewing machine feet and their different purposes, link is http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2009/06/feet-feet-feet/ and she has great images of 1/4" foot in use along with others such as Open Toed or Roller foot.

If you are shopping for different machine feet, you may like to look at www.sewingpartsonline.com, great website with lots of different brands. Your machine would be classified as a "low Shank" machine I think; often you can buy a generic brand foot which will work on different brand machines once you are sure of the shank type.

Most sewers find that there will be one foot they prefer to use for much of their work depending on their projects. My all time fav is the Elna Teflon foot, a black teflon coated foot which works great on many different fabrics; I've worn the black off the bottom of two of them!!

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Related Questions:

First make a few trial runs with a scrap of material exactly as the buttonhole will be stitched, with the machine adjusted as you intend to use it.
1. Use the embroidery and buttonhole foot. It can be chnged without a screwdriver by using the fixation screw.- With the stitch width knob at "0", turn the selector to zigzag "1".
2. De-center the needle to the left.
3. Set the stitch width knob at 2, with the solid mark on top.
4. Set the stitch length dial between 1/2 and 1/4.
5. a) Mark the desired length on the material.
b) Sew the first side of the buttonhole. Stop with the needle in the material and the mark (right).
c) Raise the foot and pivot the material round the needle. Lower the foot and raise the needle.
6. a) Set the stitch width knob at 4.
b) Sew a few stitches. Raise the needle.
7. a) Set the stitch width knob at 2.
b) Sew the second side and stop just short of the length of the first. Raise the needle.
8. a) Set the stitch width knob at 4.
b) Finish off the buttonhole by sewing a few stitches. Raise the needle.
9. a) Set the stitch width knob at "0".
b) Sew a few stitches to fasten the threads, holding the material back by hand.
10. Open with the buttonhole knife, which you will find in the accessory box.

sure, put on the buttonhole foot after
putting a button into it and using the screw knob to set the length you want.
Turn stitch length knob and stitch width
knobs to zero, (always set them to zero first to avoid wear on the stitch
selection mechanisim) then turn the left stitch selector knob to the blue
button hole symbol. Now turn middle knob stitch width, to the blue
buttonhole symbol. Now turn right knob stitch length to blue 1, sew down
the first side of your buttonhole until foot slide in the buttonhole foot
reaches end stop. raise needle and turn stitch length to blue 2, and sew
three bar tacks across buttonhole. Again, raise needle and then turn stitch
length to blue 3 and sew back down otherside of buttonhole until you reach the
end stop. Needle up, turn length know to blue 4 and sew three bartacks to
end. there is a last blue symbol dot on stitch length knob, this will sew
a stitch in place to tie off the ends. Raise pressure foot, remove your
work and draw top threads to underside with a needle, and tie off or use a dot
of fray stop. Done! if you don't have a manual you could email me and
I'll send you a copy of mine, tallygirl98 at yahoo dot com.

E1: Make sure the presser foot is lowered before sewing.
E2: You chose a stitch other than a buttonhole stitch or a bar tack
stitch and you tried to sew with the buttonhole lever in the lowered
position. Raise the buttonhole lever.
E3: If you selected the buttonhole or tack bar stitch and start to
sew with the buttonhole lever raised, you will get the E3 code. Lower
the buttonhole lever.
E4: You hit the reverse button while the bobbin winder shaft was
moved over to the right. Move the bobbin winder shaft to the left.
E5: On automatic sewing machines, the start/stop button was pressed
while the foot controller was plugged in. Unplug the foot controller if
you are using the automatic function.
E6: This code tells you that the motor locked up because the thread
is tangled. Untangle the thread, make sure the machine is threaded
properly and that the proper tension is set before continuing.

Have you pulled down the buttonhole trigger lever at the back of the sewing area? most modern machines have one of these - when you use it with the button hole foot, you'll see the foot has a little piece that sticks out and triggers the lever to begin stitching the reverse bead and bar tack of the buttonhole.

Are you using the buttonhole foot when you try? It will look like this.

Also, there is a lever you need to pull down to deploy when stitching buttonholes. It triggers the machine to stop stitching out the side of the buttonhole, reverses then does the other side. Its a little lever up in the head near the pressure foot bar and needle bar. It will touch the sticking out finger on the buttonhole foot to trigger the reverse motion in the programm.

if you have a automatic buttonhole , then you should have a buttonhole lever that you have to pull down, before you start to do the buttonhole,, my machine will not let me do a buttonhole unless I pull down the buttonhole lever

Is this the duplex model with the base that fits into a sewing cabinet?

My Elna booklet lists a SP "air electronic" duplex (CL.39), if so, then it would be same stitches as the 38, yellow front panel, 7 built in stitches and automatic knob with blue markings for buttonholing.

Here is the SU manual images for buttonholing, should be exactly the same for the SP.

Instructions are:
use buttonhole foot. turn the 3 dials to buttonhole marked in blue (stitch selection, width and length).
Mark length of buttonhol on the material. Place work under foot with the mark in the middile fo the foot, the start being directly below the needle. sew the first side, raise the needle. Turn stitch width dial to 2, blue. Sew a few stitches for bartack. Raise the needle.
Turn stitch width dial to 3 blue. sew the second side. stop just short of the first side. Raise the needle.
turn the stitch width dial to 4 blue. sew a few stitches for bartack. Raise the needle.
Turn stitch width dial to "fastening off stitch" blue dot. Sew a few stitches, holding back the material by hand. Raise needle, lift pressure foot and remove work, triming off threads.
Open the buttonhole with your seam ripper (put a pin across the end to avoid any nasties).

I've been looking too and I found here http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=18328that you need to put the bar behind the needle threader down. I think they call it a button hole stop? I don't know, but it worked. I didn't even know it existed. But it solved my problem. On my Kenmore it looks like a black lever and you pull it down. It tells the button-holer that you are at the end of the hole and it needs to backup. nifty, kind of.

I have a problem with my CS 8150 which sometimes tells me to lower the pressure foot even though I had already did it. What clears the problem for me is that I eject the thread cassette and re-install and I can go ahead and sew. Try that to see if it will quit telling you to pull down the lever.